Process Improvement

Improving an organisation’s quality foundation is an important element in driving organisational efficiency and reducing waste. Process improvement generally refers to the task of identifying roadblocks, analysing the current situation, exploring the root causes and improving the existing process architecture of an organisation. Process improvement enables an organisation to meet new goals and objectives, such as increasing profits and performance, reducing costs and reducing cycle times.

Different methodologies have been developed over time to achieve successful process improvement outcomes. 7R, BPR, Lean, Six Sigma, PDSA are some of the better-known methodologies with proven results. With the emergence of such a rich array of methodologies, organisations seeking to initiate process improvement are also faced with confusing choices. The different strengths of the many methodologies are poorly understood.

Thrive+ specialises in simplifying the choices available to organisations and supports capability development that is appropriate to the organisation’s needs. We provide support and coaching to practitioners to apply the correct tools to the relevant opportunities. We increase the effectiveness of your process improvement efforts and enable rapid benefit realisation.

Although Thrive+ prides itself in its ability to leverage many leading process improvement methodologies, we specialise in three key approaches described below.

Lean – A process and behavioural improvement methodology that focuses on eliminating waste in all aspects of the workplace. Lean considers the expenditure of resources for any goal other than the creation of value for the end-customer to be wasteful, and thus a target for elimination. Lean is often very effective in achieving rapid cost savings.

Plan, Do, Study, Act – This is an iterative four-step management method used in business for the control and continuous improvement of processes and products. Thrive+ leverages the PDSA methodology to tackle relationship-focused opportunities.

Six Sigma – Originally developed by Motorola, Six Sigma seeks to improve the quality of process outputs by minimising variability and removing defects in manufacturing and business processes. Leveraging the DMAIC improvement cycle, Six Sigma uses quality management methods, including statistical methods to achieve its process improvement outcomes. Six Sigma is now often integrated with Lean practices for increased effectiveness.

Thrive+ works with the above key methodologies and combines them with other relevant practices to help organisations to improve processes. We also believe that effective technology enablement is essential to sustaining continuous improvement. We partner with Promapp to embed a culture and system of process improvement.